NAIDOC Week
This week the Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC) celebrates NAIDOC week and the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee initially responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC week, the acronym has since become the name of the week itself.
NAIDOC week is being held from 3-10 July and is being celebrated by not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders but by Australians all across the country. Throughout the week all Australians are encouraged to participate in a range of activities to support local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
RAHC supports the culture and the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and over the recent June long weekend two RAHC physiotherpists and one RAHC dental assistant helped support a major Aboriginal festival in the Northern Territory. In partnership with Sunrise Health Service, these RAHC health professionals worked at the annual Barunga Sports and Culture Festival held in the remote community of Barunga, located south-east of Katherine. The festival is one of Australia’s longest running Aboriginal festivals and traditionally is an opportunity for different clan groups to come together and share knowledge, dance and play sport. Today the festival is a cross cultural celebration of Aboriginal Australia.
In support of the Barunga Sports and Culture Festival, RAHC health professionals fitted 70 mouthguards and attended to sports injuries during the weekend. RAHC health professionals also conducted an in-service education session to highlight the importance of rehabilitation for sports injuries.
Since establishing in 2008, RAHC has filled a total of 943 nursing, GP, dental and allied health professional placements in remote Indigenous communities and contributed over 3,700 weeks of additional primary health care service to health centres in the NT.
